Taken By The Goblins!
by RoseWithThorns
Summary: Duo has been wished away to the goblins! Wufei must run the Labyrinth to get him back but in the meantime will Duo escape? One-shot only. Enjoy the story and review. Rated T for mentioning Duo's cursing and the part of Duo's cursing that is censored.


Taken By The Goblins!

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or The Labyrinth.

It was a cold, snowy night just two weeks after the first anniversary of the Mariemaia Upraising and the former Gundam pilots had decided to meet up for a reunion of sorts at one of Quatre's houses, the one located in Ireland. Duo picked the location saying that he had always wanted to go to Ireland. Their second night there is where our story begins.

It started to snow very heavily and Duo came up with the idea of telling ghost stories. Wufei and Heero said no but were outvoted. After Quatre had finished telling his story, Duo asked "Where did you hear that story, Q-ball?"

Quatre answered "My old nursemaid told me that story once. She said that she had heard stories about jinns and decided to make up a story about them as well."

"So that thing could really have existed?" asked a shocked Duo

At that question, Quatre started to chuckle and said "No, Duo. Those types of stories have been told to generations of children to make sure that they behaved."

Duo looked confused and asked "Parents tell their children scary stories about monsters coming to get them to get them to behave?"

After Quatre nodded, Duo looked over at Wufei and asked "So Wuffers, what stories did your parents tell you?"

Wufei sighed and answered "The common story was that if a child didn't behave then the parents would wish the child away to the goblins who would turn the child into a goblin."

Quatre asked "Did you ever believe the stories?"

Wufei shot Quatre a look and said "Of course not. Goblins don't exist. If they did then I would have wished away Maxwell when I first met him.

At this Duo gave a big smile and said "Ah. Come on Wuffers. You know you love me."

Unfortunately friends, it seems that Duo finally made Wufei mad enough to snap because the next thing that Wufei said was "I wish the goblins would come and take you, Duo Maxwell, away. Right now."

Suddenly a blast of cold air shot though the room. Everyone shielded their eyes for a moment but when they opened their eyes again…

"Where is Maxwell?" hissed Heero

No sooner than the words left Heero's mouth then a tall figure appeared in the middle of the room. The figure pulled back his cloak to reveal a tall man with mismatch eyes of blue and green, blond hair, and tight Shakespearean clothes. The next thing the man knew was four guns were drawn and pointed at him.

The man looked at the four remaining boys in the room and said "Put those toys away if you wish to see your friend again."

As usual Heero took control of the situation and asked "Who are you?" in a tone that could have frozen water.

The man drew himself up and said "I am the Goblin King." He pointed to Wufei and said "You are the one who wished the one known as Duo Maxwell away, correct?"

"I am." stated Wufei

"If you want him back then you must run and defeat my Labyrinth in 13 hours. Or you could have your dreams instead." said the Goblin King while holding a crystal in his left hand

At the others look, Wufei sighed and said "Maxwell is a real pain but he is a friend. I'll run the labyrinth. After all, it is the honorable thing to do."

Just as the Goblin King was about to respond, Quatre interrupted by asking "May we go with Wufei, your Majesty?"

The Goblin King was a little shocked by the question as no one had asked to run with a runner before. Sure, sometimes a person would ask to run in place of a runner but never with. As the Goblin King was mentally going through the rules to answer, a goblin appeared in front of him.

The goblin reported "Sir, the wished away has vanished."

"What?" shouted the Goblin King

The goblin cowered and stuttered "Sorry."

The Goblin King calmed himself, turned to the shocked and amused former pilots and said "I'll be right back." That said, the Goblin King vanished into a shower of glitter.

The Goblin King appeared back in his throne room to see that all of the goblins were panicking and trying to find the missing wished away.

"How did this happened?" asked the Goblin King

"We don't know sir. We turned our backs to him for a minute and then he was gone." said one of the goblins

The Goblin King sighed and conjured a crystal ball. He then threw the ball up and it blew up to make a floating viewing screen to show where the wished away was. The screen showed Duo Maxwell in Goblin City running away from the castle. The Goblin King vanished into a shower of glitter and showed up right in front of Duo. Before Duo had time to react, the Goblin King threw a crystal ball at him which made a bunch of chains appear around him. The Goblin King then transported the cursing Duo and himself back to the throne room.

"Don't let him out of your sight even for a few seconds this time. Or all of you will be Bogged." commanded the Goblin King in a deadly tone of voice

All of the goblins quickly told their king that they understood and would followed his orders. Once the Goblin King was satisfied that the goblins understood, he vanished once again to reappear in the room that the former pilots were in.

"Did you know that he was able to get out of ropes that easily?" hissed the Goblin King

The boys looked at each other and Quatre answered "Yes. Duo was always very good at escaping."

The Goblin King looked at all of them because he just knew something was left out of that explanation. After a few minutes, he said "Very well. You three may join Mr. Chang on his run but you must not help him in any way. The second you do all of you will be immediately transported back here. Understand?"

All of them nodded and then the Goblin King transported them to the front of the Labyrinth saying that they only had 13 hours and not a moment more.

"What is that?" asked Trowa as he spotted something just a few yards away from them. Then they heard the something speak "51. 52. 53! Take that you little pests."

That was when they noticed that the something was spraying bugs. Quatre was the first to say something "Excuse me? Excuse me? Who are you, sir?"

The something turned to look at them and that was when Wufei realize what it was. It was a dwarf and the bugs were actually fairies. Then the dwarf answered "I am Hoggle. Who is you? I have never seen more than one runner before at a time."

"I am the runner, Mr. Hoggle. My friends wanted to come with me to watch." answered Wufei

Hoggle was confused and asked "And the Goblin King allowed this? I've ne'er seen such a thing."

Quatre suppressed a smile and said "The Goblin King allowing us to come with our friend might have had something to do with our other friend who was wished away escaping for a short time."

After hearing that Hoggle broke down laughing. After a few minutes Hoggle calmed down and said "You be looking for the entrance to the Labyrinth?" At Wufei's nod. Hoggle said "This way." Hoggle showed them to the entrance to the Labyrinth with no problems.

"You know," Wufei remarked "I don't remember you being so helpful from the story that my mother told me."

"Normally, I'm not." Hoggle responded "But you having such a funny story about the king, you get no trouble from me."

"Do wish aways normally not escape?" asked Quatre

"No but normally wish aways are babies or young children." answered Hoggle

After a couple of minutes, they had reached the entrance and Hoggle opened the door. "I wish youse luck." said Hoggle as the door closed behind the teens after they had walked through the doorway.

-Back at the castle in the Goblin City-

The Goblin King was checking on the group using one of his crystals.

"A new runner, Jareth?" asked a beautiful brunette woman who had snuck up behind the Goblin King

"Sarah, my love. Yes, a new runner had wished away a friend of his. The others are friends of both of theirs who wanted to come with the runner to watch." answered Jareth

"Ahh, another who didn't mean it or didn't believe that anything would happen?" asked Sarah

Jareth chuckled and said "I think he didn't believe anything would happen."

Just then a goblin showed up and shouted "The wish away is gone."

"WHAT!" yelled Jareth "Didn't I say to always keep an eye on him? Didn't I say not to even give him a second in which he could possibly use to escape?"

The goblin was cowering and stuttering while Jareth had started to rant about incompetent goblins. Sarah repressed the urge to laugh and asked "What happened?"

"The wish away was chained up by the king. The wish away asked for some food so we got him some food. The guards turned their backs for one second to get the food for the wish away. When they turned back around he was gone!" reported the terrified goblin

Jareth started to curse in goblin until Sarah gave him a look that said 'Don't you dare.'

Jareth sighed and created another crystal to see where Duo was this time. The crystal showed that Duo was almost outside of Goblin City. Once again, Jareth appeared right in front of him and threw a crystal ball at Duo. Except this time, Duo dodged the crystal so it broke apart behind him. Unfortunately for Duo, the crystal's magic still did what it was suppose to do. A bunch of chains, twice as many as last time, appeared around Duo and his clothes were changed to a fuchsia pink. One thing that Duo didn't realize is that the crystal also transported his set of lock picks to the same room where his weapons were currently being stored. Once again Duo started cursing up a storm and Jareth transported both of them to the Castle. When they got there, Sarah was still there and heard Duo cursing. She walked up to him and slapped him "Watch your language! The goblins have child-like minds and I will not have you corrupting them."

Duo stopped and just stared at her. Then the manners that Father Maxwell and Sister Helen had tried to teach him resurfaced and he said "Sorry Lady. I didn't know."

"Well now you do." stated Sarah then she turned to look at Jareth "Jareth why is he in chains?"

"Because he keeps trying to escape, my love." answered Jareth "Goblins! Take Mr. Maxwell back to his room."

After the goblins had taken Duo back to the room he had been in earlier, Sarah asked "Why are his clothes such a bright color?"

"To make it so the goblins can notice him easier if he escapes again." answered Jareth "Now, my love, would you like to see what the runner and his friends are doing now?"

"Of course, beloved."

-Back to the Gundam Boys-

The Gundam boys had made excellent progress through the Labyrinth. They were already at the Four Guards. Just as Duo was recaptured by Jareth, they had met the Wiseman and his Bird Hat. The Wiseman said "The way forward is sometimes the way back." and a few other odd statements. His Bird Hat, however, was very helpful and pointed out the direction that they needed to take. And thus, they managed to make it to the Four Guards. The Red and Blue Guards had just told them that one of them lies and one of them tells the truth. Unluckily for the Guards, Wufei figured it out in a few seconds. Wufei turned to the Red Guards and asked "Yes or no, would he tell me that this door leads to the castle?" The Red Guards talked to each other for a minute and said "Yes."

"Then the other door is the door that leads to the castle."

The Guards were surprised and the Red Guards asked "How do you know? He could be telling the truth."

Wufei answered "But then you wouldn't be telling the truth so the answer would be no. If he was lying, then you would be telling the truth and the answer would be still be no."

The Guards started laughing.

"Do you think that Duo has escaped again?" asked Quatre as the Guards continued to laugh for no specific reason.

"Probably." answered Heero

"True." said Quatre with a small laugh "Wufei, good job on figuring out the riddle in such a short amount of time."

Wufei got a smug look on his face and said "It was as Maxwell would say 'a piece of cake'."

Just after Wufei said those words, the ground opened up underneath the whole group and before any of them could react they started falling.

And falling.

And falling.

Then they stopped. They had been caught by hands!

"What is going on?" yelled Heero

"We are the helping hands. Up or down? Which way did you wish to go?" said the hands

"I am beginning to dislike this place." stated Trowa

"You're not the only one Barton." said Wufei "I guess we go down."

"Down? Down? He said down. Down it is." said the hands as the boys started falling again.

"Wufei, why did you say down?" yelled Quatre

Wufei yelled back "It seemed right at the time!"

Finally, they landed on the ground. Thanks to the helping hands and their training, unlike most runners, they landed on their feet.

"Where are we?" asked Wufei

The other three gave him a look of disbelief.

"You don't know?" asked Quatre

"No. I never really paid attention to the stories." stated Wufei

Fortunately for them, luck was on their side. Hoggle had decided to check on the specific oubliette that they were in. So, only a few minutes after Wufei made the comment about not paying the stories any attention, a door opened up a few feet away from them and out walked Hoggle. He was mumbling about how he always get stuck with checking on this oubliette and why couldn't have Ludo or Sir Didymus checked this place for a change.

Quatre looked relieved and said "Hoggle! How nice to see you again."

Hoggle was startled and said "What is youse doing down here?"

"The ground opened up and we fell down." deadpanned Wufei

Hoggle sighed and said "One of youse said 'a piece of cake' in reference to the difficulty of the labyrinth."

Quatre, Trowa, Wufei, and Heero looked at each other, then Heero asked "How did you know that?"

Hoggle stared at them and stated "Never, ever say that phrase in the labyrinth. Bad things happen when you do. Now come on, I'll show you the way out."

Hoggle opened the door wider to let the group through and then shut the door. As they were walking, Quatre said "Thanks for helping us out of there. What was that place?"

"You're welcome." responded Hoggle "That was an oubliette; labyrinth is full of 'em."

"Oubliette, French for 'to forget'." stated Trowa

"Yeah. Lots of runners end up in one. If you don't know where the way out is, then you will never find it before time runs out." said Hoggle

"Speaking of time, do you know how much time we have left?" asked Quatre

"You have seven hours left." said a voice right behind them

All of them jumped and once again, Jareth had four guns pointed right at him. He raised an eyebrow and asked "Didn't I tell you to leave your guns behind?"

"No, your majesty, you didn't." answered Wufei

Jareth looked confused for a minute and then said "Don't shoot any of my subjects or myself, understood?" Quatre, Trowa, Heero, and Wufei nodded. "This is definitely one of the oddest runs that has ever happened. And one of the fastest. By the way, your friend tried to escape again."

Once again, the four just looked at each other.

"You all are not surprised." stated Jareth

"Well, I did say that Duo was very good at escaping." said Quatre

Jareth just gave him a look that said 'I know you are hiding something and I am going to find out what.' Regrettably, just as Jareth had opened his mouth to start asking questions, a goblin appeared and said "The wish away has escaped again."

Jareth gave a bellow of pure frustration and annoyance and then vanished with the goblin in a shower of glitter. Hoggle started laughing uncontrollably right after Jareth had left. Wufei, Heero, Trowa, and Quatre sighed and braced themselves for waiting until Hoggle stopped laughing. Meanwhile, Jareth had recaptured Duo who had made it within about 20 or so yards of where the other Gundam pilots were. This time the crystal ball knocked Duo out, wrapped him up in chains, transported any and all things that Duo had on him that he could use as lock picks, and turned his clothes a bright neon 'here I am kill me now' orange. Then, Jareth transported himself and Duo back to the throne room in the castle. One look at Jareth's enraged expression and Sarah knew that Duo had escaped again and had gotten very far despite the bright clothes. Just as Jareth opened his mouth to start yelling, Sarah said "Calm down, love."

"Calm down? Calm down? My precious, this boy managed to get within yards of the runner and his friends. He escaped chains and the goblins that were closely watching him. All while bright colored clothes!" ranted Jareth

As Jareth was ranting, Sarah was taking a long look at Duo and said "You know, love, he looks familiar somehow."

Jareth stopped his ranting and stared at Sarah. "Precious, do you know him?"

"No. But I'm sure that I have seen him somewhere. I just can't remember where."

Jareth hmmm and Sarah asked "Where are his friends now?"

In response, Jareth conjured a crystal ball to show them where the group was. They had made it to Goblin City and were almost to the castle gate. Jareth sighed in relief and said "Good. Soon, I'll have my answers and be rid of this pest."

Sarah laughed and said "You only think he is a pest because he has managed to escape three times."

Just then Duo regained consciousness. He looked around and said "Darn it. I almost got away." That was when he noticed his clothes. "What the *beep* *beep* *beep* did you do to my clothes?"

Sarah opened her mouth to lecture him about his language again when Jareth interrupted her by saying "I'll change them back to their original color when your friends get here."

Duo glared at him, using a death glare that would make Heero pride at the amount of hatred and anger in it, and said in a very cold tone of voice "You had better."

Sarah shook her head and said "Your friends will be here soon child. Just be patient."

"The name is Duo Maxwell, Lady."

Suddenly, a goblin ran into the room and announced "The runner is here."

"Good. Bring him to the throne room at once." said Jareth as he conjured a crystal ball to change Duo's clothes back to their original color.

The goblin nodded and ran off to lead the group to the throne room as the other goblins started to gather around, but staying in the shadows as they thought that the king was still upset with them for losing the wish away three times. In the few minutes it took for the group of four, Hoggle had left to return to his duties after getting them to the castle, to be led to the throne room, Jareth had changed Duo's clothes back to their original black and white colors and vanished his chains. As the four entered the throne room, they saw the Goblin King sitting on his throne with a woman sitting on a throne next to him and Duo standing just a couple of feet off to the side.

The Goblin King stood and said "You have traveled through the labyrinth and made it to the castle to earn back your friend that you foolishly wished away. You have completed your journey in ten hours. Congratulations Wufei Chang, you have earned back your friend, Duo Maxwell."

While Jareth had been talking, Sarah had been studied the four boys who had walked in. She was trying to figure out why Duo Maxwell seemed so familiar to her. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks. "You're the Gundam pilots!" she said just after Jareth had finished speaking.

"Gundam pilots, love?" asked Jareth

Sarah nodded and said "Yes. Don't you remember me telling you about the recent war and how the five Gundam pilots won?"

Jareth snapped his fingers and stated "Yes, I remember now. That was how Mr. Maxwell was able to escape so easily. The five of you are highly trained soldiers. But, Sarah love, I don't recall you saying that they were children."

"I doubt most would consider us children, your majesty." replied Quatre

Sarah gave a sad sigh and said "I would suppose that it is very true. If I may ask a question?" At Quatre's nod, she asked "When did the five of you start training to be Gundam pilots?"

"Worked as an engineer for one of the Gundams. The original pilot couldn't do it. I was picked instead." said Trowa

"Been training for as long as I can remember." said Heero

"A few years before the war began." answered Quatre

"Since I was a child." answered Wufei

"A couple of years before the war began." stated Duo

"So young and yet you all had to bear a great burden." whispered Jareth and yet everyone heard it

For a few moments there was a sad silence and then Duo asked "So, uh, can we go home now? I'm kinda of hungry and tired."

The End.

Nami: Well, I hope ya'll enjoyed the story. I tried to make it mostly humor but I had to add the sad part in the end. After all, the Goblin King takes in the unwanted children and all of the pilots were only 15 when they fought in the war, thus they would be considered children by Jareth. Credit for the idea goes to one of my best friends. Oh, for those of you, who have seen the Labyrinth, just imagine the way the goblins and Hoggle talked please. It was difficult to write in such a way. Also, I had to change how Wufei would win Duo back for a few reasons. First, Duo is not a child but a teenager. Second, Wufei obviously hasn't read or seen The Labyrinth and thus would not know the words to get Duo back the usual way. Third, does anyone really think that Jareth would want to keep Duo? Human Duo is mischievous enough. Goblin Duo, may God have mercy on us all is all I have to say about that. I could not find any information on what they called the short 'war' from Gundam Wing Endless Waltz so I decided to just call it an uprising after Mariemaia. Reviews are welcome but Flames will be used to roast marshmallows for s'mores. Have a wonderful day!


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